Family

The Family Man is a heart-warming, humorous story starring Nicolas Cage as a wealthy Wall Street deal maker who wakes up one morning to find himself living an alternate version of his own life in which he had chosen to marry his girl friend (Téa Leoni) 13 years ago and settled down to a quiet family life as a middle class tire salesman in suburbia. The story brings out the importance of the values that govern our choices in life, juxtaposing ego-driven, career success against the psychological fulfilment arising from deep and abiding love and affection. Leoni portrays to perfection the romantic ideal of the patient, affection, understanding wife.

Articles on The Family Man

The tremendous power of non-reaction is wonderfully portrayed by the character of Kate Reynolds. Read more in the article ‘Harmony Strategies’. See the article and videos.Read more and ask questions about this movie in the Movie Forums.

Plot Summary

Jack Campbell is a single, wealthy Wall Street investment banker living the high life in New York City. All that magically changes one morning when he wakes up in a suburban New Jersey bedroom with the wife he never married and two kids. Jack realizes that he is living the life he could have had if he had not gone to London and become an investment banker but had stayed in the States with his girlfriend. While he desperately wishes to return to his high life, Jack is stuck in a "permanent acid trip" because an angel wants to teach the overly confident man a lesson.

Jack struggles to fit into the role of a family man, making many serious blunders such as missing opening Christmas presents, flirting with a friend's wife and forgetting his anniversary. Very soon, Jack's young "daughter" realizes his secret and decides to assist him in surviving his new life. He begins to succeed in his life, bonding with his "children," falling in love with his wife and working hard at his dull job. He suddenly finds himself being offered a contract to work as a banker in New York. While his old businessman personality wants to accept the offer, his new family man personality realizes it would be a bad idea. He refuses the offer and happily settles into his life with his family. Just as Jack is finally realizing the true value of his new life, his epiphany jolts him back to his wealthy, yet as he now realizes,lonely, former life.

In desperation, he forgoes closing his $130 billion acquisition deal to intercept the real woman he fell in love with in his dream before she heads off to Paris. He tells her about the happy family that they could have together; met with complete incredulity, he relates in impossibly precise detail what he remembers of his dream life. Shocked but intrigued, she agrees to a cup of coffee at the airport, suggesting that they might have a future after all.

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Click on the images to order the movie The Family Man Directed by Brett RatnerWritten by David Diamond & David WeissmanStarring Nicolas Cage as Jack Campbell, Téa Leoni as Kate Reynolds Copyright belongs to Universal Pictures